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Oklahoma Sooners Football: Sooners top 2017 Big 12 preseason poll

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The Oklahoma Sooners have been picked by the media to win a third consecutive Big 12 Championship in 2017.

By Jack Shields
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Oklahoma State v Oklahoma Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images

The Oklahoma Sooners have been voted as the preseason favorite to win the Big 12 Conference in 2017, edging out the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Oklahoma, which has won the conference 10 times since it formed in 1996, claimed 19 of the 32 first-place votes submitted by media representatives.

The Sooners are followed in the poll by the Oklahoma State Cowboys, who received 12 first-place vote. The Kansas State Wildcats came in at third and received one first-place vote.

The Sooners, who won the Big 12 with a perfect 9-0 conference record in 2016, return nine starters on offense, including Heisman finalist Baker Mayfield and all five starting offensive linemen. The defense returns seven starters, including preseason All-Big 12 players Ogbonnia Okoronkwo and Jordan Thomas.

When combining Oklahoma’s returning starters with the potential of the young players at the skill positions, Oklahoma’s ranking atop the preseason poll seems to be justified. Oklahoma State will give the Sooners a run for their money. They are certainly capable of topping the Sooners in Stillwater, but I just don’t picture them being able to beat OU a second time in the Big 12 Championship Game roughly a month later.

Here’s how the media poll shook out:

  1. Oklahoma (19) 303
  2. Oklahoma State (12) 294
  3. K-State (1) 231
  4. Texas 213
  5. TCU 202
  6. West Virginia 183
  7. Baylor 129
  8. Texas Tech 85
  9. Iowa State 83
  10. Kansas 37

Here’s how I voted:

  1. Oklahoma
  2. Oklahoma State
  3. TCU
  4. Kansas State
  5. West Virginia
  6. Texas
  7. Baylor
  8. Iowa State
  9. Texas Tech
  10. Kansas

I’d definitely be comfortable with flipping TCU and K-State in my poll because of K-State’s defense, but TCU has the best chance outside of the Okie schools to be scary in 2017. You may also notice that I have Iowa State over Texas Tech in my poll. Give me Matt Campbell over Kliff Kingsbury any day of the week.

I think Texas can definitely end up being better than where I have them, but I’m not quite sold on their quarterback situation just yet.

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